New rescue cat keeping everyone awake

[TheGirlOnTheLanding]

We got a rescue cat 8 days ago and she has settled well - already very friendly, eating well, using her litter tray. However, when she poos in the litter tray she shouts the house down till the offending item has been removed. This is ok during the day but it’s happening at 3 or 4 am too and we’re all feeling a bit sleep deprived. We’ve tried ignoring it but she’s insistent and so so loud! It’s funny because she’s a quiet little thing otherwise. She’s only 8 months old and on the mix of wet and dry food the rescue was giving her (she likes to eat little and often), but I’m wondering if a change of diet might help or if we should take away uneaten food earlier in the evening - or if she might just settle in time, as it’s still early days.

You can get automatic litter trays which move the poo out

If she's a grazer and you take away her food in the evening, you risk her meowing for food.

Have you got two litter trays out? The recommended number is 1 per cat plus one. Some cats like to pee in one and poo in the other. If you've only got one, this might be why she's complaining.

Litter robot solved this issue for me!

I don’t know where we’d put a second litter tray @PhantomOfAllKnowledgeHer enclosure at the rescue definitely only had one. Also she seems to be announcing rather than complaining, IYSWIM - the yelling happens the second the deposit is made. I’m so out of the habit of litter trays as our previous cat hated them and would only go in the garden.

Are automatic litter trays noisy @Galliano@ittakes2? She’s quite easily spooked at the moment so if it has a noisy motor I’d be worried it would scare her and stop her using it.

it waits for 5+ minutes before it rotates - you can specify how long. This obviously helps with nervousness. It disconcerted mine less than the cat flap click right from the start

Our boy does this - as soon as he's used the tray he shouts for someone to come and tidy up. He actually comes in to use it if he's outside, and I get what you are saying about being out of the habit as we previously had a girl cat who would only toilet outdoors (although we did always have a litter tray for her just in case). We're almost two years with this lad and he loves the litter tray!

We shut him in the kitchen overnight - not for this reason, but because otherwise he's a total pest as soon as the sun comes up, jumping on our heads and asking for breakfast at 5am. We did the exact same with our girl. He has food/water, a basket of toys, cat tree, a couple of beds, and his litter tray, and it's a big room so nothing coming over him. Could you try this? We actually have three trays in the house, one in the kitchen which he mainly uses, another in the utility and one in an alcove in the hall - one is a triangle shaped "corner" tray which might be an option?

Once they’ve had a poo they get a release of adrenalin or something - it’s sort of because they ‘survived’ being at their most vulnerable and at risk of attack. I notice that our two tend to run about mad as soon as they’ve gone for a poo.

Oh and where’s the photo? 😀😀😀

As a previous poster suggested, can you shut her downstairs at night, so her shouting doesn't wake you up? If you keep going down to tend to her, she's never going to stop this behaviour. I suspect even if you added a tray or whatever, she'd find another reason to shout as it gets your attention.

The recommendation is to have two litter trays for one cat, so I would try adding another one even if it has to go somewhere inconvenient for now.

I would also be shutting her downstairs completely overnight.

The smell alone means we have to get up and clear it up anyway.

Maybe when she's going outside this will stop happening.

Are you the OP?

You really shouldn't be able to smell it that badly. Healthy cat poo shouldn't have much odour at all.

Is that true about stinky poo @vanillalattes ? Marvin does truly foul ones but I have put it down to his horrible diet (Felix) rather than a specific health issue

Yep - poor quality food will make it stink as well.

They are carnivores, of course they have smelly poo!

Honestly, it really shouldn't stink so badly that you have to get up in the night to clear it.

Yes, poo smells but a healthy cat that's eating an appropriate diet should be producing relatively solid, odourless poo.

Well my two are lazy and don't even bother to bury it.

They are both on very expensive veterinary diets so I don't know what else to tell you.

My lad’s a stinky poo-er and has a decent diet - but definitely not that we would get up in the night to tidy up. If he uses the litter tray and I’m on a Teams call (I work at the kitchen table and the tray is just behind me) I would generally try to wrap it up pretty quick though.

When you say veterinary diet do you mean food like Royal Canin or Hills?

Because foods like that tend to be filled with grains and other foods that many cats struggle to digest properly.

I'm not trying to be irritating or a know-it-all, but healthy cat poo (even unburied poo - one of mine doesn't bury it either) really shouldn't smell that badly.

If you get up and clean it, she’ll continue meowing every time.

Both our cats are vocal but one likes to register complaints. Sometimes that complaint is that he’s expected to go to the loo alone at night. We don’t accompany him after midnight/we’re asleep - he occasionally still tries to rouse a poo partner but if we give in, he’ll come back every night for at least a week.

Also agree with PP about having two litter trays; we have one on each floor of the house. The second is in our dining room, it ruins the aesthetic but it gets used a few times a week despite them being allowed out in the day.

mine shouts to alert me to presence if a smelly item in the tray.

My last cat used to do a lap of honour running round the house or garden to celebrate releasing the offending item.

i lock my cats in the kitchen so i can get peace!

Our 16 year old cat started doing this when our other cat died last year. She has become much more outgoing since being an only cat. The smellier the poo, the louder the meows. She eats only wet food- when she used to eat Katkin and other better quality food her poos were barely noticeable. On Felix it is OK (she refuses the quality food now), but if we ever have to give dry food it is truly foul.
She will however use the litter tray afterwards fine, so she is announcing it rather than requesting a clean…
The useful thing is she also shouts at us immediately if she pukes anywhere which is very handy for cleaning up.
We have always shut our cats downstairs at night so rarely get woken by them.